If the opponent tries to block the long diagonal with Pawns, you
can lever open the line again with your own Pawns.

This is a simple plan which can be played by either side. I have
played dozens of games like this.

A castled fianchetto position can be a very hard nut to crack -
for example, h7 is difficult to get to. The Pawns cover the dark
squares and the Bishop covers the light squares.

However, there is a recipe for attacking the castled King's
fianchetto position.

The weaknesses created by the g2-g3 move can be used by the
opponent to get at the King: either by getting pieces into the
holes (f3 and h3), or by using the h-Pawn to lever open the h-file,
or some combination of these ideas. If the Bishop is removed, all
that will be left is a network of holes.

Black has correctly tried to get at the King through the h-file,
particularly h3. If White plays Bxh3, the Black Queen will leap
onto the doorstep of the White King. Another clever point is: Black
has held the Bishop on h3 while advancing the h-Pawn, so White
cannot meet ...h7-h5 with h2-h4, blockading the h-file.

Here Black should play 1...hxg3 with the idea of
2. hxg3 Bxg2 3. Kxg2 Qh3+ mating.

This attacking scheme is not very quick to set up, but works
like clockwork.

"I had won hundreds of five-minute games in similar positions
and had it down to a science: lever open the h-file... sac, sac ...
and mate!" - Bobby Fischer

I must emphasise the importance of this plan. There are several
standard attacks which you must be able to play - this is one of
them - and where it often seems the attack is easier to play than
the defence. If you ever intend to play a fianchetto system, your
opponents can trot out this plan almost without thinking, and if
you get your counterattack wrong you will almost certainly be
checkmated. In every opening where there is a King's-side
fianchetto you can expect to find a critical line where the
opponent tried to checkmate down the h-file.

Having placed your Bishop on the long diagonal you need to be
careful how you place your central Pawns. If they sit about in
front of the Bishop they limit its reach until they move; if they
become blocked they can choke it for a long while.

On the other hand, leaving your central Pawns unmoved leaves the
centre free for your opponent! So fianchetto openings are difficult
to handle, particularly in how you play in the centre. This is part
of the attraction of fianchetto systems: they are difficult and so
grandmasters can hope for their GM opponents to go astray at some
point.

Fianchetto Openings

Fianchettoes turn up frequently in closed Queen's-Pawn openings,
and there is a Fianchetto Variation for White in each of the Indian
Defences (semi-closed openings).

King's Indian: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. Nf3 O-O 5.
g3

Grunfeld: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 d5

Queen's Indian: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3

And most recently, Kasparov has experimented with:

Nimzo Indian: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. g3

But the history of the fianchetto is particularly bound up with
the history of the flank (hypermodern) openings.

Reti and his contemporaries rejoiced in the fianchetto, arguing
that you did not need to occupy the centre as White as long as you
controlled it.

The diagram is from Reti-Lasker, New York 1924. We can see that
Reti has allowed Lasker to occupy the centre but Rtei has
fianchettoed both Bishops to hit back at this, and has even backed
up his Bb2 with a Queen on a1!

This is the outline of the Catalan Opening (1. d4, 2. c4, 3.
g3). White combines a fianchetto with both a central stake on
d4 and pressure on Black's centre with c2-c4. Black can try to
reinforce d5 with moves like ...e6 and ...c6, but this is rather
passive.

Black can stop the fight for the d5 point by ...d5xc4, but this
gives White a central majority and opens up the long light
diagonal.

This is a development we often see in the English Opening
(1.c4). White uses the pressure of the fianchettoed Bishop
to strike at the Black Queen's-side.

Having plonked a Pawn on c4, it makes sense to let the
light-squared Bishop peer around the side of it; we see the same
development by Black in many closed Sicilian systems and in the
Benoni and Dutch Defences, where Black fianchettoes to avoid the
Bishop’s Pawn. In each case the fianchettoed Bishop can used
to support a Pawn advance.

The Reti-Barcza system beginning with 1. Nf3 reserves all
White's options.

This is a rather slow, subtle opening system which is difficult
for all players to handle.

White can expand on the King's-side, centre or Queen's-side
(west, south-west, south).

The King's-side expansion is known as the King's Indian Attack,
and is often played by players of 1.e4 against half-open defences
like the French. It's another clockwork attack.

W

The fianchetto can also be tried in e-Pawn games, particularly
the half-open defences - we have mentioned the King's Indian Attack
against the French, and the Pirc and Modern Defences are based upon
a Black King's-side fianchetto. White has also tried a fianchetto
of the King's Bishop in many lines of the Sicilian, Open and
Closed.

In the open Sicilian, Black may post the dark-squared Bishop on
the long diagonal without fear that it may be stifled by Pawns. The
Dragon Bishop is a fearsome creature, particularly if White castles
Queen's-side hoping to carry out the clockwork attack against
Black's King's-side. Black already has a half-open c-file against
White's own King!

Conclusion

The fianchetto is one of the basic building-blocks of chess
thinking. Although it is associated with some of the most complex
opening systems that are played by GMs, you are bound to come
across it, and should at least know how to attack a castled King
which is also hiding behind a fianchetto.

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Chess Quotes

"The great master places a Knight at e5; mate follows by itself."

"Some Knights don't leap - they limp."

"A chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an advantage, and the third... when you know you're going to lose!"